we fly in the world. >> that is wonderful. >> yeah. we've got -- >> i've got to go. i'm sorry. i am flat out of time. i hear all this goodness you all do and i salute you at west jet. thank you very much. i'm out of time. we go to bar so that's my cue. jake tapper, take it away. most of washington, d.c. got a snow day today but there may be a thaw up on capitol hill. i'm jake tapper. this is "the lead." the national lead. after all your debt ceilings, your fiscal cliffs, your shutdown showdowns, are lawmakers finally closing in on a deal that could stick? breaking details on the talks first this hour on "the lead." the money lead. lean in and perform the foot-in-mouth pose. how the chairman of lululemon got canned for suggesting the size of women's thighs were the real problem with his yoga pants. the pop culture lead.

where is the next band-aid? do today's artists know it's christmas? good afternoon, everyone. i'm jake tapper. welcome to "the lead." we begin with the politics lead. the expectations are low and the stakes are high. that usually translates in this town to pretty much nothing getting done, but in what you might call a festivus miracle, it appears that congress could possibly, possibly be on the verge of its first budget deal in two years. it's not the president and speaker boehner dealing here. it's top republican congressman paul ryan and democratic senator patty murray behind this latest agreement that would set government spending levels and replace the automatic cuts set to take effect next year. so what's notably missing? well, major concessions from either side on issues like medicare and medicaid or unemployment benefits.

and yet there are still legitimate concerns that this not so grand bargain will not cut the mustard with hard line members of both parties, and as usual, time is running out. cnn chief congressional correspondent dana bash joins me with the very latest. dana, how soon would this have to be brought to the floor of the house or senate to realistically have a chance of becoming law? >> well, they'll have to do it very soon. we are told from sources in both parties there could be a deal within the next few hours. the deadline technically is friday, but they certainly have to go through a lot of important processes to get to that point. what's important to note is what you underscored. we have to say it again. this is not a grand bargain. this is not about the big things that really are making the deficit and debt so big. but it is small and anything small that is bipartisan these days will take, right? there are a couple things holding it up. >> what are the sticking points? >> unemployment benefits. long term unemployment benefits are going to run out soon.

democrats in both chambers but particularly the house are really holding out because they want either this to be part of the budget deal or to use it as leverage to make sure that they have a promise to extend the unemployment benefits. another thing that may seem a little parochial but is a big deal to senior democrats who represent maryland suburbs of d.c., a lot of federal workers, is that part of the deal is -- would force federal workers to pay more for their pensions. that's something that steny hoyer and others are saying they don't like. that probably won't hold it up as much. then you have the conservative side. they just don't like this to begin with because they don't like the idea this would do away with the forced across the board spending cuts that they say are critical to keep spending down. democrats of course say it's arbitrary and we need to be more smart about this which is what both sides are saying this deal would be. >> we are expecting a possible press conference at any moment but who knows. >> who knows. possible. because we had these sticking points, you never know.

they're -- >> they are now being reviewed -- >> ryan and murray have been meeting, are meeting, could be meeting as we speak. they are being very secretive about this because they want to make sure their balloon is not popped before they have everything done. >> they don't get to come up with this deal and then present it. they have to get it signed off by the house and senate democratic and republican leaders. >> exactly. and it's much more of an issue with house republicans, as you can imagine. so if and when they do have an agreement, presumably they will present it to house republicans tomorrow morning, wednesday morning, before they can go forward. >> to be clear, this would raise spending from the level it would be with these forced budget cuts, the so-called sequester, we hate to i donuse that term, this would be more spending than that. >> two things. it would be more spending but it also would be less arbitrary. it wouldn't be across the board. it would be targeted which is what democrats and some republicans have been calling for, particularly when you talk about defense cuts.

right on both counts. >> dana bash, keep us updated with this story. thank you so much. in our world lead, nearly 100 world leaders and tens of thousands of people gathered in the johannesburg fnb stadium to pay respects to nelson mandela today. president obama told the cheering crowd how the man they call madiba motivated him years ago. >> over 30 years ago, while still a student, i learned of nelson mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me. it woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. and while i will always fall short of madiba's example, he makes me want to be a better man. >> let's bring in cnn chief

international correspondent christiane amanpour from johannesburg. she was there for the memorial. good to see you as always. what was the atmosphere like there during the memorial? at times it was almost hard to hear the president. >> reporter: yes, actually it was quite hard to hear a lot of people. the president actually made himself heard the best. he spoke very clearly and got a massive applause from the crowd. remember, this is the first black president of the united states memorializing and honoring the first black president of south africa, and it was really quite electric at that moment. it was a very, very, very long memorial and people had lined up for hours and hours and hours before it even started. of course, it was raining a lot so it was slightly damper, the atmosphere, than one hoped for but there was music and there was joy and there were all sorts of interesting moments and vignettes but the president did deliver a very good speech here. >> there used to be a saying in this country that politics should stop at the water's edge but that no longer seems to be the case. there are a lot of people

criticizing president obama today, shaking hands with cuban president raul castro. florida republican senator marco rubio had this to say about it. quote, if the president was going to shake castro's hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms mandela was associated with that are denied in cuba. florida congresswoman ilian alayton called it a propaganda coup. president obama mentioned there are too many leaders that claim solidarity with madiba's struggle for freedom but do not tolerate it in their own people, a clear reference to castro, assad, perhaps. what do you make of all this? >> reporter: i think he made a very clear swipe at those who have been remembering nelson mandela but of course, people who actually do not by any stretch of the imagination follow in his footsteps at all. i think the handshake in the full, you know, reflection of history which might be in the

next quarter of an hour is going to be taken as a handshake. it was a diplomatic situation in which there were a number of leaders who had been appointed to speak. they were all on that dais, including castro and the president of brazil and other leaders, and president obama came up to take his place at the podium and in so doing, had to physically pass those leaders, even those with whom he had no relation and one of them was raul castro, and he shook his hand. he's a polite man. this was a diplomatic gathering. and then on he moved to the president of brazil, and he kissed her on both cheeks even though she canceled a state visit to washington, why, because she was so cross about the nsa and the spying and the spying and eavesdropping on her. so you know, you could have it all ways here. the president did, as i said, take a swipe at those who did not allow freedom or dissent in their own countries. by the way, in the spirit of reconciliation, lots of different couplings were going

on in terms of crossing party lines and ideology. there were all four living british prime ministers, there were four american presidents of different stripes. there was clinton and the bushes, they all sat together and there was president obama and president carter. there was a lot of that going on, including the former french president and current french president. so it was one of those days, jake. i think that's about as much as it amounts to. >> and of course, president george w. bush who was there with clinton and carter, as you mention, standing up and giving president obama a standing ovation along with many others in the crowd after his speech. his speech did seem to go over very well, as you point out. special relationship being the first african-american president of the united states. before i let you go, any favorite moment from the day? >> reporter: well, you know, for me, i was just so struck by this amazing portrait of grief that was the face of graca machel,

nelson mandela's widow. she is such a beautiful woman. they married very late. he was 80 years old when they got married. she had been widowed. she had been previously married to the freedom fighter, a great liberator of mozambique who cast off portuguese colonialism and became the first black president there. to think of all that time she spent with mandela in his last years, this beautiful face in this real grief was quite something to see. >> yes, of course. behind it all, a human being with loved ones. christiane amanpour, thank you so much. coming up on "the lead," he defended his company's sheer yoga pants by suggesting the women wearing them might be too fat. now he is out of a job. plus, president obama reaches in to bill clinton's inner circle for a little help. can a democratic heavyweight turn things around after a rocky start to president obama's second term? every day we're working to be an even better company -

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welcome back to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. our money lead, is the woman who will be leading general motors, mary barra. she will be making the leap from executive vice president to ceo in january. she will also be shattering a glass ceiling that has loomed over detroit for decades. she will be the first woman to lead a major u.s. automaker. the big three boys club no more. barra grew up with g.m. her father was a tool and die maker for the company and her career there began when she was 18. she's taking over at a decent time. the government has sold its last stake in the company, so there's no more of that bailout baggage. j.d. power gave g.m. a top ranking in quality this year for the first time. in other money news, if you love yoga, you are probably familiar with the company lululemon, makers of athletic gear for what the company describes as sweaty pursuits. today, they announced a new ceo. laurent potdevin.

while a new ceo had been expected, what was a surprise was the announcement that the founder and chairman chip wilson would be stepping down from his role last year. the company's had some issues this year. they recalled some of their stretchy yoga pants. stocks are down over 4% since last year and comments like these from wilson just last month, well, they didn't help. >> some women's bodies just actually don't work for it. it's really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there and over a period of time. >> wilson apologized for that comment but also wrote in a blog post in 2009 that quote, breast cancer also came into prominence in the 1990s, sic. i suggest this was due to the number of cigarette smoking power women who are on the pill. initial concentration of hormones were very high and taking on the stress previously left to men in the working world. i want to bring in lee gallagher, assistant managing editor for fortune magazine and

co-chair of the fortune most powerful summit. i want to get to the troubles of the company in a second. how big of a deal is it we have the woman as head of the first major u.s. automaker? >> a huge deal. this is huge news. she was considered a contender, so it wasn't entirely unexpected, but this is a big deal. she now is the ceo, she runs the largest women-run company when she takes over. g.m. is number seven on the fortune 500 and eviously, it was meg whitman who runs h.p. there are a.x number of women w run these top corporations. but running a car company, just the meaning there, that this is detroit, this is the auto industry, and its place on the fortune 0,his isvery, very significant. it's in line with trends we have seen over the past few years. >> should we expect any big changes from her? >> i don't think so. i mean, she's really -- she really tells it like it is.

she's known for kind of no b.s. she's very, very experienced. she has almost the exact kind of background you would want for someone taking the reins of this company. she started as an intern, she has an engineering background, she ran a plant, she ran h.r., and she was, you know, for example, when she ran human resources, one of the things she did was cut down the employees' dress code which was a ten-page part of a manager's document and made it just one sentence. dress appropriately. her point was if you're running a division at g.m. and managing people, you don't need to be told what to wear. so that's the kind of manager she is. i think we can take a lot from that lesson. >> dress proorappropriately. i love it. back to lululemon, speaking of dressing appropriately, i have seen chip wilson, the soon-to-be ousted ceo described as a loose cannon. is that fair? >> absolutely. he just gives us more fodder for headlines. you can almost, at this point i was going to say he could be a "saturday night live" skit. he is.

we have seen this before in some executives, especially founders and entrepreneurs tend to be let's just say quirky sometimes. it's not uncommon. but i think the right thing to do is move him out of the scenes and put in someone who can run this business. this company is big and it's important and it's nowhere near the size of the company when he founded it. so he's long ago been behind the scenes but now this is really making it official. i think it's important, i think that lululemon's customers and shareholders need to see this happen. >> when i first heard the comment he made about women's thighs and you need to have a certain kind of thigh, not a fat thigh, in order to be the right person for lululemon yoga pants, i thought this guy really doesn't know who his consumers are. >> exactly. look, i think this plus the mary barra story, i might be biased but i think this is why we need more women in ceo roles. i know they're not replacing him

with a woman but it's just, you know, there are some tactical behavioral issues between men and women that you see in the ceo position. >> lee, thank you so much. great talking to you. >> thanks. coming up next, as the one year anniversary of the newtown shooting approaches, vice president biden vows to do everything he can to prevent another mass shooting from slipping through the cracks. mass shooter from slipping through the cracks of the trouble health care system. will it be enough? he railed against members of his own party during the government shutdown and now wants to take down the number two republican in the senate. that's next. [ female announcer ] thanks for financing my first car. thanks for giving me your smile. thanks for inspiring me. thanks for showing me my potential. for teaching me not to take life so seriously. thanks for loving me and being my best friend.

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welcome back to "the lead." in national news, vice president joe biden met with newtown families and mental health advocates today and announced $100 million in federal funding to improve mental health services.

this just four days before the one year anniversary of the tragic shooting at sandy hook elementary. i want to bring in chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta for more. good to see you. thanks for being with us. $100 million. what specifically will that money be used for? >> it's interesting, $50 million of it is coming from the executive branch, the department of health and human services. that is specifically to help hire more mental health professionals, create community resource centers which could help free up some beds and address issues like substance abuse. what is interesting is the other $50 million is in fact coming from usda, through one of their services programs in the community, and the reason for that is that they want to make sure there's a focus on rural health as well, which gets even shorter shrift. so they are going to focus on rural areas, building up some of the resources there, including again, the hiring of new staff. but also focusing on telemedicine, this idea that

people, mental health professionals in one community might be able to provide services to underrepresented, underserved communities as well. so $50 million hhs, $50 million usda. >> usda of course, the u.s. department of agriculture. what else is the administration doing on mental health? obviously today's announcement just one piece of a much larger puzzle and $100 million in the scheme of things, not actually all that much money. >> right. at the federal level, i agree, and you know, part of this has been as you know, jake, has been a push overall coming out of the vice president's office looking at violence, gun violence specifically. this is part of that broader mission or broader push from the vice president's office. but with regard to mental health, you remember back in 2008, there was a mental health parity bill that was passed which basically says let's think of mental health on par with physical health, everything from your co-pays and deductibles to the fact you would classify mental health as an essential health service in the way you

would classify physical health. that didn't really get teeth until just a few weeks ago, november of this year. so almost five years later is when they actually said okay, these parity things are now going into effect. so that's a bigger push. there is also this idea that just like you can't discriminate against people based on pre-existing physical conditions, you can't discriminate against people based on pre-existing mental health conditions either. and we already sort of knew that, but that's also been part of what we're seeing with this parity act. i will say that, look, when we talk about parity, none of it really works unless there's enough resources, enough staff, enough beds available, and we just don't have that right now in this country. some of this will help in that area, although as you point out, a small amount. a significant amount is going towards research overall. a couple billion dollars is coming out of the affordable care act dollars to actually target new potential treatments and even earlier diagnosis for mental health. >> speaking of beds not being

available, we all remember a few weeks ago when former virginia gubernatorial candidate creigh deeds' son attacked him, then shot himself, his son having been turned away from a mental health facility. virginia governor bob mcdonnell today announcing some new mental health initiatives in the commonwealth of virginia. his successor applauding the efforts. this is really where a lot of the real change is going to happen, right, at the state and local level. what can you expect to see, what are you expecting to see and hoping to see on the state and local level? >> let me give you an idea how big a turnaround this is. between 2009 and 2012, it was -- mental health budgets at the state level were basically decimated, really gutted. more than $4 billion in cuts over that time period between 2009 and 2012. so this is playing a little bit of catch-up but also represents a huge turnaround. you are absolutely right because

again, you can talk about parity all you want, you can talk about initiatives to reduce stigma, but unless people can get service they need, the mental health professionals are available, none of that really makes a difference to people who are suffering right now, and at the state level and local level is where you're going to see that. there were 37 states that actually increased their budgets for mental health overall, including texas, actually the biggest, $259 million over the next two years. remember, your audience will appreciate this, that's not because of medicaid expansion in texas. texas is not expanding medicaid. this is a decision by the states to do this, and again, a huge turnaround. i think no question after aurora, after newtown, after a lot of what we've seen over the last year, it's caught everybody's attention and as much as we have talked about guns, mental health is something that people are focusing on as well now, thankfully, and even at the state level. >> we hope it will make a difference. dr. sanjay gupta, thank you so much. coming up next, another shot at the republican establishment as one more tea party candidate

challenges a long-time republican senator. plus, christmas music. it's so 20 years ago. as in that's the last time a singer actually made a holiday song that became a hit. so what's with the lack of new holiday classics? i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa.

we know what it means to serve. but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive,y first. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron. the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about 2 weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. women especially those who are or who may become pregnant and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these symptoms to your doctor. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer; worsening prostate symptoms; decreased sperm count; ankle, feet or body swelling; enlarged or painful breasts; problems breathing while sleeping; and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting and increase in psa. ask your doctor about axiron.

the politics lead now. it's a showdown in the lone star state. perhaps another warning shot for the republican establishment. texas congressman steve stockman, a tea party favorite, just threw his hat into the ring for next year's senate race and a primary challenge against fellow texan and incumbent senator john cornyn, member of the senate republican leadership who has been ranked as one of the more conservative members of the senate staff. in 2008, cornyn ran this web ad borrowing a tune from the late great johnny cash. >> see, i'm from texas, where we do things quick and the way this place is run is about to make me sick. big john. ♪ big john >> yeah, the work of fred davis. can the self-styled big bad john be taken down?

let's ask our panel. ross douthat, kiki mclean and white house correspondent for yahoo! news, olivier knox. cornyn has a war chest of $7 million. stockman, $32,000. >> and he's sending out great direct mail except he's sending it out online. he's putting up fund-raising appeals that basically describe the name john cornyn as only mentioned with the epithet liberal attached. it's liberal john cornyn should take his massachusetts values -- >> he's really calling him a liberal? >> oh, yeah. no, no, no, the stockman pitch is that it's liberal john cornyn has, you know, betrayed conservatism in 17 different ways and if he wants to be a liberal in the senate, he should run for the senate in massachusetts. it will be entertaining at the very least. >> you could make the case steve stockman is more conservative than john cornyn.

>> you can. there's a substantive difference in their rating from the american conservative union and that's the 7% on which the american republic stands or falls. >> but does steve stockman have a chance here? you never know, really. >> it will be really fun to watch both this race and the one in kentucky, where republican leaders, people who are known as bedrock conservatives, are facing challenges on this notion that they are somehow not true to the faith. matt bevin in kentucky, steve stockman in texas. i'm not hearing a lot of concern from the establishment, though. i think that the national republican senate committee would like harry reid and the white house to maybe stop praising mcconnell and cornyn. >> kiki -- >> i'mtexan here. >> i keep hearing about that state turning blue. >> her color today is a testament. >> the guys were going to go to fashion -- >> this is the only blue texas i have ever seen. >> i grew up with mr. pickle and

barbara jordan, lloyd benson. >> ann richards. >> ann richards. the thing about texas politics, they don't like people from outside the country, no offense, gentlemen, we call it the country, from telling them what will or won't work in their politics. that 7% you refer to, there's a $7 million but there is also that 7%, remember, this is a primary fight. >> right. >> governor perry has done a lot to cede the -- stoke the emotional fire, the super uber tea party conservatives in texas. so we can giggle and laugh and there's a lot of reasons statistically to do that in this one, but don't be surprised if -- >> the only thing i'm laughing at is liberal john cornyn because he's not liberal. >> there's a real -- >> stockman's argument, right, is focused in this pitch that i can't believe i'm the only one who has read is focused particularly on the debate about defunding obama care and the debate about the government shutdown. it's exactly the line of argument that i think we expected coming out of that

interrepublican debate to be used. >> i take it very seriously. absolutely. >> what's interesting about that -- >> he's pro obama care. that's the argument. >> right. >> in the big picture you would look at for a general election you would say he's not telling you what he wants to do which is what he has to do in order to win in terms of stockman. but in another sense, he's starting his campaign by filing -- explaining why he's done it by giving already that boiled-down messaging. why i don't like that liberal cornyn as he calls him. >> but remember, ted cruz, the other senator from texas, he was not the republican party establishment favorite in texas. >> i think that's why we're seeing a lot of attention from the media that some of the early primary announcements, a lot of reporters feel a little burned from the last time the way they handled the ted cruzes or rand paul. we are seeing a lot of attention for that reason. i wasn't focusing so much on the liberal john cornyn. i did like that steve stockman told supporters they would not

have to face actual bayonets. >> not yet. >> nobody wants a primary challenge, regardless of how comical you think it is or isn't, it's bad. this is a demonstration that there is not cohesion in the republican party. there's a lack of leadership in the republican party and right now, doesn't even look like anybody's getting the tools in an effort to build a bridge to bring that party back together. that's the problem. >> let's talk about cohesion and leadership. there's at least an indication there is some lacking at the white house with the announcement that john podesta, former clinton white house chief of staff is coming on board the obama white house to become counselor. not exactly, maybe you know, being a white house correspondent, what exactly is he going to be doing? >> i think he's going to be trying to steady the ship over there. this guy has a long career in washington. he's done a lot of this work before in the clinton white house, for example. i think this is clearly the transfusion. the question is whether the transfusion before the amputation in terms of the white house staff. the president and other top aides have suggested that

somewhere down the line, probably after they smooth out the wrinkles, putting it mildly for obama care, they would be open to looking at a review of the team, seeing who's playing well and who's not. i haven't heard anything about amputation yet but this is a very interesting transfusion. >> brand new q poll out this hour has president obama at a new historic low, 38% approval. they need to do something. >> look, he doesn't need to raise his approval ratings just for the sake of raising them. big change like obama care -- >> it would be nice. >> well, those are nice -- >> hypothetically. >> nice to make us all feel good but that doesn't have anything to do with -- what his numbers are doesn't have anything to do with the kind of work he's trying to do for the country. big change comes with a cost sometimes of your own favorability rating. i want to challenge the premise of how you opened this conversation by talking about the lack of leadership. i think when a leader brings in great talent, that's a tremendous sign of leadership. to invite somebody like podesta to join the team when there are

big efforts at hand, that's a remarkable sign of leadership. i think good leaders bring good talent to the team. >> two points. one, this is a guy who in his first tour as chief of staff in the clinton years has experienced basically running a white house at the end of an administration, when you aren't doing a lot of big things in congress, you are mostly doing things through the bureaucracy, you know, and podesta is incredibly hooked up with, you know, washington insiders of every stripe. then the other thing, to your point, the approval ratings need to go up for the democrats to survive in 2014. >> the other benefit of john is people are tired. >> thank you all so much. great job. coming up, world leaders past and present, royalty, celebrities, tycoons all in johannesburg for nelson

mandela's funeral, history and huge news happening in that one spot. so why did most of the network news anchors stay home? plus, will a court force a reporter with a big story to reveal her sources? if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about trying or adding a biologic. this is humira, adalimumab. this is humira working to help relieve my pain.

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back to "the lead" now. the buried lead. it was an historic farewell, complete with a phalanx of camera crews, celebrities, more than 100 world leaders past and present, but a notable no-show at today's memorial for nelson mandela, network news anchors. only nbc's brian williams was on hand to witness history. was it a media snub or was it just a sign of the times? the associated press writes quote, the mood shows how economics and a dwindling interest in international news

are changing the biggest broadcast networks. where a decade ago there would have been little question that their most prominent faces would be on hand for such a big story. joining me to discuss, senior cnn media correspondent, brian stelter. i should note our colleagues christiane amanpour, anderson cooper, chris cuomo, all made the trip. this obviously isn't about bragging rights, it's about the changing face of news. what's your reaction to this notable absence? >> there was a time and an age when all three nightly news anchors would have been there. where anchors go, attention follows, and i was pretty surprised to see that dianne sawyer did not travel to south africa for the memorial service or for the other services this week. but abc and cbs, folks there would say it's a different time and different age now, and that it's better to have reporters who have covered mandela all his life actually there while having the anchors back in studio. they say this attitude that i'm

expressing is kind of obsolete. >> let me play devil's advocate with you. diane is a friend. i understand their argument. there just isn't the interest in world news among the american people and there isn't the money, it's incredibly expensive to broadcast from a place like johannesburg. >> or any of the war zones that the united states finds itself, you know, involved in right now. i sometimes think to myself if one of the nightly news anchors who has eight or nine or ten million viewers a night went to afghanistan every few months and gave us an update on the war there, the american people might remember the wars in the same way that if they were to go to south africa, we would be more aware of the mandela memorial service. but you know, that might be an argument that was more true ten years ago than it is now. after all, if you want to learn about the memorial service today, there is endless amounts of information about it online, on the internet, including from

articles from abc and cbs and other outlets that didn't send anchors there. this is maybe an example of the changing media landscape, where the internet is providing most international news and where television is more focused on domestic news. >> i wonder if anyone is willing to suggest that maybe the viewers are just not as interested in the wars, afghanistan or before that, iraq, or international events and ultimately, this being a commercial enterprise, we're beholden to them in what they want. >> there is a significant part of that that is true. i found myself thinking earlier today when i read that associated press article you quoted, if american viewers really wanted more coverage of africa, then there would be more coverage of africa. right now, there are very small bureaus in africa among the three major networks, abc for example has someone in nairobi but no one in johannesburg, just to give one example. if american viewers really, really wanted more coverage, there would be more coverage

because they would be reacting to the market demand. instead, what american viewers are more interested in, it seems like, is coverage of issues here in the united states. of course, if you're interested in world news, there has never been more of it online. but instead of being passive, leaning back and watching it on tv, you have to be active and seek it out on your own terms. >> thanks, and welcome to "the lead." good to have you on. you can see brian every sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern on "reliable sources" only on cnn. a fox news reporter will not have to betray her confidential sources or go to jail. lawyers for the alleged gunman in the colorado movie theater shootings wanted new york-based journalist janna winter to reveal who gave her information about his notebook. james holmes reportedly described his plans for violence in that notebook before the shootings and mailed it to his psychiatrist. his lawyer said those sources may have violated a gag order and lied under oath and they wanted her to name names, but a new york appeals court ruled that state law shields her from having to go back to colorado and give up her sources.

winter said she would have gone to jail first. holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. his trial has been put on hold indefinitely. coming up on "the lead," all i want for christmas is new christmas music. you would think people would get tired of doing the jingle bell rock after 56 years, but the season's newest tunes go over about as well as aunt marie's fruitcake. [ male announcer ] for every late night, every weekend worked, every idea sold... ♪ you deserve a cadillac, the fastest growing full-line luxury brand in the united states. including the all new 2014 cadillac cts, motor trend's 2014 car of the year. now during our season's best event, get the best offers of the season on our award winning products, like the 2014 ats and srx.

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welcome back to "the lead." the pop culture lead. it's the christmas season again. you may have noticed. it begs the question, do you hear what i hear? no, it's not the sound of sleigh bells ringing. it's the heavy rotation of christmas music. it's big business worth tens of millions of dollars, but the sound track, well, seems almost

as old as the holiday itself. in a world where someone can be creative enough to invent the cronut, is it really that hard for song makers to come up with something new, a catchy tune that forces them to rhyme the world mistletoe? as you're zipping around holiday shopping, attending religious services and generally spreading yuletide cheer, you are likely to notice something. your jingle bell rocking to yourself, humming, the same tune, probably the same one as last year and the year before that one, too. white christmas by bing crosby. check. the classic duet, baby it's cold outside. check. that one premiered in the 1949 film "neptune's daughter" from mgm. this year's twist on it? now you can hear it as sung by the gang from "duck dynasty." every year, holiday stations churn out the same musty

standards. the only twist, it seems, is who is belting them out. but no new songs seem to break the candy cane ceiling. >> it's hard to figure out why it is that even though we still have the top stars of today writing original christmas songs, none of them have really broken through. >> chris wrote a piece for slate.com pinning down this christmas song trend. he points out that the latest modern holiday song to stick was, well, take it away, mariah carey with "all i want for christmas is you." >> it's not that there are no more good christmas songs coming out. it's that we as a culture have stopped embracing the new ones that do come out. it's been 19 years since "all i want for christmas is you." >> that's right. the newest of holiday standards is 19 years old. before that, the waitress's christmas wrapping, now a perennial holiday song on the radio, came out in 1981. it's hard to write a new

standard. big pop names haven't stopped writing christmas songs, it's just that we, the public, we have stopped embracing them. maybe rightfully so? remember in 2008, lady gaga released "christmas tree." in 2010, coldplay offered "christmas lights." how about 2011, justin bieber's "mistletoe." >> they want to do something that's popular with their fan base when really christmas is about nostalgia, it's about harkening back to good times, to youth. >> annie johnson is an associate professor of music business at berkeley college of music. she's worked in the music industry for years with everyone from gloria estefan to parliament funkadelic. >> with gloria, it was easy.

often artists do this at a point of their career where they are trying to harken back to things that they did at the beginning of their career that were wildly popular. >> are we no longer willing to embrace new christmas songs? are we only willing to enjoy stars regurgitating classics like bing crosby and david bowie with "little drummer boy"? we have to wait for the next generation of holiday risk takers to see what holds and sticks. kelly clarkson, mary j. blige, jewel have released new christmas albums this year. you will only find a handful of new christmas songs. so far, none of them are getting touted as classics. bah-humbug. the era of live holiday musicals may be coming back thanks to the success of "the sound of music" live. the network is already making plans to air another musical next year. there's no official word on what the show will be but rumor has it peter pan is a top contender. the live "sound of music" remake was a ratings hit for the

network even though critics were ready to say so long to star carrie underwood's performance minutes into the show. the broadcast did well in social media, drawing more than 450,000 tweets, some of them even nice. that's it for "the lead." i'll be back in two hours on "outfront." i now turn you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." happening now, white house shakeup. president obama turns to a former top clinton aide for some help. can he put the second term agenda back on track? handshake uproar. an impromptu greeting with cuba's raul castro sparking controversy and speculation. is it an omen for u.s. relations with cuba? and dying wish. a young cancer victim inspires a bipartisan bill to increase funding for research. why do some democrats say it's a fraud? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."